Designer crafts swimsuit for cancer survivors

Retailers offer custom-made pieces

Cancer survivor Minoo Mobin-Ventura of Gaithersburg has designed swimwear for women who have had mastectomies. The outfits are sold at Saks Fifth Avenue.

Minoo Mobin-Ventura of Gaithersburg designed standard swimsuits for curvy women until she suffered kidney cancer.

Doctors removed the kidney in an operation in 2005 to save her life and keep the cancer from spreading, she said. The surgery, however, left a "big happy face" scar of 8 inches below her left breast. Later, when taking a trip to Florida, Mobin-Ventura could not find a swimsuit that would protect her scars.

"I was like, Man, I can't even wear a swimsuit,'" said Mobin-Ventura, who found swimsuits for women who have had mastectomies, but believed them too frumpy.

The experience launched BelaFigura, her swimsuit line, sold at Saks Fifth Avenue at the Tyson's Galleria in McLean, Va.

"Cancer is hitting more and more and more young girls," Mobin-Ventura, 36, said in an interview. "These girls are going through a whole heck of a lot. I just wanted to make something sexy, fashion-forward for them to wear."

The line is for everyone, Saks officials said. Swimsuits with a pink ribbon on the hang tag can be custom designed for breast cancer survivors who have had mastectomies. At her home in Hidden Creek, Mobin-Ventura sews pockets for prosthetic inserts into the triple-lined bathing suits and makes bra pads to fit.

An estimated 192,370 women in the United States are diagnosed with breast cancer each year, according to the National Cancer Institute, but it took a tough economy for buyers to take interest in her line, said Mobin-Ventura, who spent several years trying to find a quality designer who would agree to spend the time and money sewing her samples. Top-notch manufacturers wanted orders of 100,000 pieces or more. With consumer spending down, now is her time to shine.

"It took this economy being in the water to say, Oh my God, you're on to something,'" said Mobin-Ventura, who faced foreclosure while getting her business off the ground.

Her lucky break came in October when a buyer at Saks debuted her line at a "Key to the Cure" event for National Breast Cancer Awareness month at Saks' flagship store in Chevy Chase. Mobin-Ventura had six weeks to find a manufacturer and make 400 pieces.

"The cuts of the swimsuit are very contemporary or stylish," said Heather Shaw, marketing manager at Saks in Tyson's. "Just because you're a survivor doesn't mean you should be stuck with matronly options."

The modern swimsuits fit in well with Saks' clientele, she said.

The designs, now also on sale at Stretch-a-licious Boutique in Potomac, are couture pieces with detailed seams that sell for $160 to $164. Some have silkscreened graphics; one features a peacock made with Swarovski crystals.

"One of our owners is a survivor, and the line is designed for survivors, so that's what caught our eye at first," said Jodi Gurowitz, co-owner of Stretch-a-licious. "But the styles are adorable, too. They're very cute."

The Miami and Los Angeles factories also make boleros and mesh cover-ups so survivors "can go from the beach to the pool to the restaurant," Mobin-Ventura said.

The Chevy Chase native received degrees in fashion design and merchandising from the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale in Florida and Marymount University in Arlington.

In 1998, she headed to New York City to work for the Signal Apparel Company Inc., a business that owned licenses for 27 companies, including Victoria's Secret and Umbro Ltd., and merged in December 1999 with Tahiti Apparel, Inc.

She fell in love with designing swim apparel for the Walt Disney Wild World of Sports and registered the BelaFigura trademark years ago, Mobin-Ventura said. When she received her kidney cancer diagnosis in 2005, she decided to pursue her dreams.